Fairyland and Ryan Moore in full flow© Photo Healy Racing
Fairyland put in an impressive performance on debut to take the opener at Naas this afternoon, the Coolmore No Nay Never Irish EBF Fillies Maiden.
A 925,000 guineas purchase as a yearling, the daughter of Kodaic proved easy to back, and from an early show of 2/1, she drifted from 3s to 7/2 on-course.
Prominent throughout under Ryan Moore, she was pushed along to lead over a furlong out, and kept on well under pressure inside the final furlong to score by a length and three parts. Mintd (7/2 out to 9/2 on-course) finished second under Billy Lee for Willie McCreery, while Coral Beach (10s to 8s) ran an eye-catching race in third, another half a length back. Moravia (from 12s this morning) and Mater Matuta were the 3/1 joint-favourites, and they finished fourth and seventh respectively.
O'Brien said afterwards: "She is a lovely filly. She is a lovely, straight-forward filly at home and I couldn't be happier really.
"She obviously wasn't away and wasn’t on grass before. Some of them are very quick learners and some of them take a run, but Ryan was delighted with her really.
"Herself and Seamus' filly (Coral Beach) were working very similarly. Seamus' filly was a little bit greener during the race, and she'll go back to a maiden I'd imagine. The winner will have another run before the Queen Mary.
"Coral Beach works very pacey at home but she is a little bit spooky, and I wasn't really surprised the way she was today. She came out and jinked left, something frightening her. She had a lovely run though and we look forward her the next time.”
